Formulas Used by Tibetan Doctors at Men-Tsee-Khang in India for the Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Their Correlation with Pharmacological Data Raquel Luna Antonio, 1,3 Elisa H. Kozasa, 1 José Carlos F. Galduróz, 1 Dawa, 2 Yeshi Dorjee, 2 Tsultrim Kalsang, 2 Tsering Norbu, 2 Tashi Tenzin 2 and Eliana Rodrigues 3 * 1 Department of Psychobiology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil – Rua Botucatu, 862, 1  andar, CEP 04023-062, São Paulo, SP, Brazil 2 Men-Tsee-Khang – Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamsala, Distt. Kangra, 176215, HP, India 3 Center for Ethnobotanical and Ethnopharmacological Studies, Department of Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil – Rua Prof. Artur Riedel, 275, CEP 09972-270, Diadema, SP, Brazil The aim of the present study was to identify formulas used at Men-Tsee-Khang (Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute), India, for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders and to compare the Tibetan usage of particular ingredients with pharmacological data from the scientific database. Using ethnographic methods, five doctors were selected and interviewed. A correlation was observed between central nervous system disorders and rLung, one of the three humors in Tibetan medicine, which imbalance is the source of mental disorders, and ten multi-ingredient formulas used to treat the imbalance of this particular humor were identified. These formulas utilize 61 ingredients; among them were 48 plant species. Each formula treats several symptoms related to rLung imbalance, so the plants may have therapeutic uses distinct from those of the formulas in which they are included. Myristica fragrans, nutmeg, is contained in 100% of the formulas, and its seeds exhibit stimulant and depressant actions affecting the central nervous system. Preclinical and clinical data from the scientific literature indicate that all of the formulas include ingredients with neuropsychiatric action and corroborate the therapeutic use of 75.6% of the plants. These findings indicate a level of congruence between the therapeutic uses of particular plant species in Tibetan and Western medicines. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords: ethnopharmacology; medicinal plants; neuropsychiatric plants; Tibetan medicine; traditional medicine; Men-Tsee-Khang. INTRODUCTION In 1959, following the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Dalai Lama and approximately 80 000 Tibetan refugees escaped to India in political exile. From this point, Dharamsala, a small city in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India, has been the site of the Tibetan Central Administration (Bhatia et al., 2002). In exile, Tibetans sought to maintain their cultural traditions, including the traditional medicine, which is currently taught and practiced at Men-Tsee-Khang, formally known as the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. A recent bibliographic search found that the majority of studies about Tibetan medicine pertain to pharmaco- logical and phytochemical research and that few studies utilize an ethnopharmacological approach (Finckh, 1981, 1984; Begley, 1994; Ryan, 1997; Loizzo and Blackhall, 1998; Tokar, 1999; Zhen, 2000; Dakpa and Dodson- Lavelle, 2009a, 2009b; Loizzo et al., 2009). Among the ethnopharmacological studies, only a few described the plants used in Tibetan medicine, and the majority of these studies focused on Nepal, China, and the Ladakh region in India (Bhattarai et al., 2006; Ballabh and Chaurasia, 2007; Ballabh et al., 2008; Liu et al., 2009; Witt et al., 2009; Bhattarai et al., 2010). Mental disorders affect a large portion of the world’s population (Kessler et al., 2005). These disorders are components of comorbid conditions (Krueger, 1999) and a major cause of disability (Üstün, 1999). For example, major depressive disorder is the fourth-ranked cause of disability worldwide (Üstün et al., 2004) and is commonly identified in patients with chronic physical disorders (Moussavi et al., 2007). Individuals with mental disorders are frequently stigmatized, which impairs their social relationships and sometimes prevents them from seeking out treatment. With regard to neurological disorders, there are approximately 25 million people living with Alzheimer’s disease, and this number is predicted to reach 81.1 million by the year 2040. Multiple sclerosis affects 2.5 million people worldwide and is one of the most common neurological disorders in young adults (WHO, 2006). In this article, we present a survey of the medicinal formulas used at Men-Tsee-Khang in India for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders and compare the usage of medicinal plants with pharmacological data from the scientific literature. * Correspondence to: Eliana Rodrigues, Rua Prof. Artur Riedel, 275, Jardim Eldorado CEP 09972-270, Diadema, SP, Brazil. Email: 68.eliana@ gmail.com PHYTOTHERAPY RESEARCH Phytother. Res. (2012) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/ptr.4749 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 22 December 2011 Revised 25 April 2012 Accepted 30 April 2012